Amir Esfandiari
Threshold of touch series emerged from moments during my journey to Hormoz Island, in Hormozgan, in the south of Iran—where I felt an intense connection to the environment and to everything it holds. In this place, nature—regardless of how one defines the force that shapes its spirit—offers an immediate opportunity to reconnect the body with its surroundings: with objects, subjects, and other bodies. This experience moves beyond seeing in its conventional sense and becomes meaningful through the act of touching.
For example, in one of my projects titled Threshold of Touch, I explore touch as a gesture carrying profound emotional and cultural weight in my life and, more broadly, within this geography. Touch between different genders has long been considered taboo in Iran and is actively restricted by authorities—a norm instilled from childhood. This reality has shaped a constant inquiry in my practice into the body, boundaries, and presence in everyday life.
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Amir Esfandiari (b. 1995, Tehran, Iran) is a writer, researcher, and multidisciplinary artist based in Tehran. He holds a BA in Dramatic Literature from Azad Art and Architecture University and an MA in Performing Arts from the University of Art in Tehran, and is currently a PhD candidate in Art Research. Working across performance, photography, and video, his practice engages with questions of war, surveillance, and memory, often blending theory, narrative, and image. Esfandiari has exhibited in museums and galleries in Iran, and has also published a hand-made artist book combining text and photography.
